Google Fiber started to roll out its broadband Internet in Kansas City, both in Missouri and Kansas, as well as in Austin. Last February, it also announced that 34 other cities would be chosen for expansion. Now, Google has to face a new challenge since AT&T announced on Monday that it has come up with an ultra-fast fiber network of its own. The company is eyeing an expansion of its AT&T U-verse with GigaPowerSM, to service 100 different markets.

This new service promises blazing internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, which is similar to Google Fiber. Currently, U-verse is available only in one market, which is Austin. GigaPowerSM will be the fastest Internet provided for consumers in the city and will include advanced TV features and services in December of this year. The other additional markets will include 21 major areas including San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. They also added that they would work with leaders in these areas to communicate over how the service will be brought to them. This is necessary since installing broadband infrastructures is not simple and those companies also like to seek what help they can from local leaders. AT&T is already dealing with local officials in bringing its GigaPower and U-verse service to some cities in North Carolina.

GigaPower is also eyed to enable advanced TV features and services with more HD quality streams to watch and even record different shows simultaneously, as well as more DVR capacity for storage. According to Brett Sappington, analyst at Parks Associates, Google Fiber is forcing competitors to match them, effectively driving up speeds for everyone so they can benefit from the ads. If they can force a higher Internet speed, more ads and content could be offered in more places online, and apparently their plan is working.